Hit of the Lits – FRA Top 40
Every month we run a poll on site asking you for your favourite reads for the previous month, a kind of bookish top of the pops. This month we received almost 200 replies with almost 100 different book titles mentioned. As we always do, according to your votes we’ve whittled that list down to a Top 40 Hit of the Lits, and we have that here for you now!
November’s list is a fascinating mix of books with a lot of new titles mentioned and a lot of classics being re-read. Back are several titles that seem to be forever in someone’s hands being read but I shall stop waffling now and leave you to enjoy the full Top 40, including all the ‘movers and shakers’ from last month, here’s the Hit of the Lits, top 40 for November.
1
The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
Topping our chart and a re entry is this Top 40 perennial and a favourite of many of yours this WWII novel by Kristin Hannah comes highly recommended by our community.
2
A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman
This wonderful book should be compulsory reading for everybody and with yet another month in our charts it seems many of you agree with me. This month sees it hopping back up to number 2.
3
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
The tale of an impoverished but aspirational, second-generation Irish-American, adolescent girl and her family in Williamsburg re appears in our Top 40 after a short absence.
4
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
A brand new title for our Top 40 with Abraham Verghase’s rich, ambitious tapestry of a novel about two brothers torn apart in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia.
5
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
It appears that some of us are in need of our Mr Darcy fix as Jane Austen’s classic novel of proper behaviour versus true love makes an appearance in our Top 40.
6
When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi
Another new entry Paul Kalanithi died whilst writing this profoundly moving, powerfully written book that will remain with you long after you have turned the final page.
7
Water for Elephants – Sarah Gruen
New in at number 7 Kath described this novel as being “a beautifully written read, well researched, thrilling and with a satisfying ending” so it’s no surprise she wasn’t the only one enjoying it in November.
8
The Coffin Dancer – Jeffrey Deaver
The second in the Lincoln Rhyme series by Deaver is new in at number 8, as the Coffin Dancer, America’s most wanted hit man, is backamd only Rhyme, a quadraplegic ex-cop has any chance of stopping him.
9
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
New in is this tale of a chance meeting in a cafe that begins ‘Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America . . .’
The Reluctant Fundamentalist US
The Reluctant Fundamentalist UK
10
Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
Up from 37 last month is Gillian Flynn’s new novel following Camille Preaker, a newspaper journalist who must return to her hometown to report on a series of brutal murders..
11. Dorothy Must Die – Danielle Paige (New)
12. The Hobbit – J.R.R Tolkien (New)
13. A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness (New)
14. Room – Emma Donoghue (New)
15. Small Great Things – Jodi Picoult (-12)
16. The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank (New)
17. A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara (New)
18. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (New)
19. All the Light we Cannot See – Anthony Doerr (New)
20. Lilac Girls – Martha Hall Kelly (+14)
21. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt (-8)
22. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things – Bryn Greenwood (New)
23. The Complaints – Ian Rankin (New)
24. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe (New)
25. Cosmos – Carl Sagan (New)
26. Earth Abides – George R. Stewart (New)
27. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (New)
28. Barkskins – Annie Proulx (New)
29. Slumber by Samantha Young (New)
30. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfus (-19)
31. Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith (New)
32. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs (-30)
33. NOS4A2 – Joe Hill (New)
34. The Second Winter by Craig Larsen (New)
35. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (New)
36. Harry Potter Series – J.K Rowling (-35)
37. The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (New)
38. The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood (-15)
39. The Miniaturist – Jessie Burton (New)
40. Gerald’s Game – Stephen King (-33)
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